' Indian authorities have granted permission for the prosecution of the Booker prize-winning
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy
over comments she made about Kashmir at an event in 2010.
Roy, 62, is one of India’s most famous living authors, her activism and outspoken criticism of Modi’s government, including over laws targeting minorities
The decision to prosecute was denounced by the Communist party of India (Marxist), which said in a statement:
“Condemnable. The Delhi LG has granted permission to prosecute Arundhati Roy
under the draconian UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act]
For a speech reportedly made 14 years ago – in 2010.
Defies logic except the fascist kind. Timing is suspect since courts are on vacation, as are lawyers.”
The UAPA – under which the prosecution has been granted – is unconstitutional and undemocratic, say critics. UAPA, ostensibly a terrorism prevention law, has been routinely used by the Modi government to try to
silence government critics,
including lawyers,
activists,
journalists,
priests,
poets,
academics,
civil society members,
and Kashmiri civilians."
The complaint concerned Roy’s comment that the disputed territory of
Kashmir was not
an “integral” part of India"
___
'In 1820, the Sikh Empire, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir.
In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, and upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir.
The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy (or tutelage of the British Crown, lasted until the Partition of India in 1947, when
the former princely state
of the British Indian Empire
became a disputed territory,
now administered by three countries:
China, India, and Pakistan"
"Nanga Parbat (Urdu: نانگا پربت) (Urdu: [nəŋɡa pərbət̪]; lit. 'naked mountain'), known locally as Diamer (Shina: دیآمر, lit. 'King of the Mountains'),
is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth
and its summit is at 8,126 m (26,660 ft) above sea level."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir
The Sikhs enacted a number of anti-Muslim laws, which included handing out death sentences for cow slaughter,
In the British census of India of 1941, Kashmir registered a Muslim majority population of 77%, a Hindu population of 20%
and a sparse population of Buddhists and Sikhs comprising the remaining 3%.
That same year, Prem Nath Bazaz, a Kashmiri Pandit journalist wrote: "The poverty of the Muslim masses is appalling. ... Most are landless laborers, working as serfs for absentee [Hindu] landlords ...
Almost the whole brunt of official corruption is borne by the Muslim masses."
Under Hindu rule, Muslims faced hefty taxation and discrimination in the legal system, and were forced into labor without any wages. Conditions in
the princely state
caused a significant migration of people from the Kashmir Valley to the Punjab of British India.
For almost a century, until the census, a small Hindu elite had ruled over a vast and impoverished Muslim peasantry."
India controls 101,338 km2 (39,127 sq mi) of the disputed territory,
Pakistan controls 85,846 km2 (33,145 sq mi),
and the People's Republic of China controls the remaining 37,555 km2 (14,500 sq mi).
"Kashmir region is home to rare species of animals, many of which are protected by sanctuaries and reserves. The Dachigam National Park in the Valley holds the last viable population of Kashmir stag (Hangul) and the largest population of black bear in Asia.
In Gilgit-Baltistan the Deosai National Park is designated to protect the largest population of Himalayan brown bears in the western Himalayas.
Snow leopards are found in high density In the Hemis National Park in Ladakh.
The region is home to musk deer, markhor, leopard cat, jungle cat, red fox, jackal, Himalayan wolf, serow, Himalayan yellow-throated marten, long-tailed marmot, Indian porcupine, Himalayan mouse-hare, langur and Himalayan weasel.
At least 711 bird species are recorded in the valley alone with 31 classified as globally threatened species."
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